Tech History Made on December 25, 2003

On this day in 2003 Great Britain lost their beagle. Unfortunately, it would take more than posting fliers to insure the return of Beagle 2, the spacecraft Great Britain intended to land on Mars. All contact was lost with the lander 6 days before it was to land. It may have skipped of the atmosphere, missed the planet all together, burned up in Mars' atmosphere, crash landed, or just had a systems error that terminated communication ability. No one really knows for sure since it was never heard from again. The Beagle 2 was named after Charles Darwin's ship the HMS Beagle. Its purpose was to search for Martian life past or present on Mars, just as Darwin searched for new organisms on voyage. Darwin's ship is also believed by some people to have burnt up in Mars' atmosphere. Of course, those "people" are Sherri Shepherd.

[ The Beagle 2 (left) being sniffed by a beagle (right) ]